This is the kind of thing I wish everybody could write for themselves.
It automated a simple, repetitive task that Beatrice was spending a lot
of time on. I wrote most of it in a few minutes, and then she finished
it.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
# script to help beatrice with her web pages
# comments for perl newbies
# ARGLEBARGLE marks the end of $stylelinks
# "my" creates a new variable
my $stylelinks = <<ARGLEBARGLE;
<link href="../css/global.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="../../paisley.ico">
ARGLEBARGLE
# similarly with SIMILARLY
my $sidebar = <<SIMILARLY;
<ul class="first">
<li><a href="../animals/index.html"><h2
localizable="true">Animals</h2></a></li>
<li><a href="../architecture/index.html"><h2
localizable="true">Architecture</h2></a></li>
<li><a href="../light/index.html"><h2
localizable="true">Light</h2></a></li>
<li><a href="../macros/index.html"><h2
localizable="true">Macros</h2></a></li>
<li><a href="../performances/index.html"><h2
localizable="true">Performances</h2></a></li>
<li><a href="../plants/index.html"><h2
localizable="true">Plants</h2></a></li>
<li><a href="../../index.html"><h2 localizable="true">Home</h2></a></li>
SIMILARLY
sub mogrify_file {
my ($input_filename, $output_file) = @_;
# creates a variable $file, opens the file for input (<), and sticks
# the open file in $file
open my $file, "<", $input_filename or die "Can't open $input_filename: $!";
# <$file> reads a line from the open file and sticks it in $_
while (<$file>) {
if (/<h2/) { # /foo/ looks for "foo" in $_, returns true if
found
print $output_file $sidebar;
} elsif (/rel="stylesheet"/) {
print $output_file $stylelinks;
} elsif (/CC-Attribution/) {
print $output_file ' <p localizable="true"><a
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/";>CC-Attribution 3.0</a>
Beatrice Murch</p>';
} else {
print $output_file $_;
}
}
}
sub dirname {
my ($filename) = @_;
# chop off slashes followed by zero or more (*) nonslashes ([^/]) at
# the end ($)
$filename =~ s|/[^/]*$||;
return $filename;
}
die unless (dirname "fixed/foo/bar/baz.html") eq "fixed/foo/bar";
sub ensure_dir_exists {
my ($filename) = @_;
my $dirname = dirname($filename);
# invoke shell command mkdir -p fixed/foo/bar
system "mkdir", "-p", $dirname;
}
sub create_new_file_from {
my ($filename) = @_;
my $newfilename = "fixed/$filename";
ensure_dir_exists($newfilename);
open my $output, ">", $newfilename or die "Can't open $newfilename: $!";
mogrify_file($filename, $output);
}
die "no files" unless @ARGV;
for my $file (@ARGV) {
create_new_file_from($file);
}
